The good. The bad. The ugly: A look at the local stories that made news on the pages of the

Published: Monday, December 31, 2012 at 05:22 PM.

Photo Galleries

The 14 employees who worked at the Burlington site were relocated to surrounding offices. There had been a Social Security Administration office in Burlington since July 1967.

Fatal wreck at license check leads to conviction

A Gibsonville woman pleaded guilty to killing a 21-year-old at an Elon traffic stop when her car struck the woman, who was outside her vehicle arranging a ride home.

Lisa Dianne Sutton, 42, of Ingle Street, Gibsonville, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor death by motor vehicle in the July 2011 death of Shakeshia Taylor. Taylor was involved in a license checkpoint stop on N.C. 100 when Sutton’s 1998 Jeep Cherokee hit her and an Elon officer at the scene.

At the March 7 hearing, Taylor’s family and an assistant Alamance County district attorney requested the maximum 60-day sentence. Sutton, whose own son had been killed by a driver later convicted of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, tearfully apologized to the family.

District Court Judge Catherine Stevens issued a suspended 60-day sentence, placed Sutton on 18 months’ supervised probation and ordered her to spend 20 days in jail. Sutton was also ordered to pay restitution to Taylor’s family.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Dec. 20 against Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson over accusations that Johnson and his department have discriminated against Latinos. The complaint alleges that ACSO routinely discriminates against and targets Latinos for enforcement action, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez released a memorandum statement on Sept. 18 with results of a two-year investigation into the ACSO. The Justice Department asked Johnson to submit a plan for ACSO structural reform by Sept. 30. Johnson has repeatedly denied that the ACSO has unlawfully targeted Latinos and declined to commit to structural reforms requested by the Justice Department. The DOJ is seeking a court enforceable, comprehensive, written agreement that will ensure long-term structural, cultural and institutional change at ACSO.

Federal officials decided in November to withhold COPS Technology Program Grant funding from Alamance County in wake of the dispute. After the county appealed, the grant funding was restored in December. The DOJ continues to withhold federal drug asset forfeiture proceeds from the ACSO over the dispute. The county has asked for an administrative hearing with the DOJ to have these funds released. The Alamance County Board of Commissioners said it supports Johnson and would continue to fund his legal defense against the DOJ lawsuit in 2013.

Economy shows signs of life

The local economy improved as the unemployment rate dipped below 10 percent and businesses including Sheetz Distribution Services LLC showed interest in the area. In September, both Burlington and Alamance County agreed to provide $2.1 million in incentives to Sheetz to build a manufacturing and distribution center on Whites Kennel Road. Sheetz plans to invest $32 million and bring 253 new jobs to the site.

Also in 2012, a large tract of land in the Hawfields community was under consideration for economic development. Local officials began working on a plan to make the site viable for development through a joint agreement between Graham, Mebane and Alamance County. The interlocal agreement, if approved, would set guidelines on how water and sewer lines would be installed and how future incentive agreements would be paid by the parties. Economic incentive costs would be divided equally between Graham, Mebane and Alamance County.

The Alamance County Board of Commissioners met in closed session on Nov. 19 to discuss the Hawfields site’s economic development prospects. Several commissioners said after the closed session that a company was considering the site for future development calling it a “mega deal.” A later report on an industry publication website indicated that an unidentified company, possibly Walmart, plans to invest $100 million in a new warehouse construction project at Trollingwood and Hawfields roads. The project codenamed “Operation Swordfish” calls for the construction of a 950,000 square-foot building on 150 acres at Hawfields.

Community college confusion

Few messages from the November elections were stronger than the one that Alamance County residents don’t want a higher sales tax. A proposal on the ballot to raise the local sales tax by a quarter-cent lost by 72 to 28 percent.

The increase would have financed a $15 million facility at Alamance Community College that would have housed the automotive, machining, HVAC, welding and carpentry programs, along with paying for county-wide economic development efforts.

The facility itself, listed separately on the ballot, was approved by voters by a margin of 57 to 43 percent.

An organized campaign in support of the two proposals linked them, but supporters questioned whether some people who voted understood the tax would be used to build the facility. In the end, it’s impossible to say with certainty how many people were confused, how many might have voted for a sales tax increase that would have been used solely for the facility and would have expired once those costs were covered, and how many opposed the tax increase but wanted to show support for the college anyway.

County commissioners rejected the traditional idea of using property tax increases to pay for the building, saying that the tax base is already stretched too thin. Still, some county leaders and college representatives expressed interest after the election in finding an alternate way to pay for the facility.

Two local businessmen die in accidents

A Burlington pilot and owner of Greensboro-based Coble Trench Safety was killed Jan. 20 in an airplane crash in Alabama. Tom Coble, 58, was traveling alone when his L-39 Albatros fighter jet went down shortly after takeoff from an airport in Rainbow City, Ala. He was en route back to Burlington. The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet released the final report with information about the cause of the accident.

The Coast Guard recovered the body of missing Burlington businessman Bill Vestal on Dec. 2 in waters near Cape Lookout. Vestal was last seen going under while surfing Nov. 19 on the south end of Portsmouth Island on Cape Lookout National Seashore. He was 56. Vestal was a business partner with David Stevenson for 27 years in Burlington’s Stevenson Vestal. The two were also partners in a recently formed business, Safe-TShade Inc. Vestal was founding director of Vantage South Bank.

Elon expansion continues

The astonishing growth of Elon University over the past two decades was capped by a new benchmark in 2012: For the first time, the university reached the 6,000 enrollment mark.

Other signs of expansion were more obvious. Construction, which has been in a down period elsewhere for the past four years, continued unabated on campus. Mill Point, a new housing complex in the style of apartments for junior and senior students, opened as did the Gerald L. Francis Center housed in the former Smithfield Hams building. Elon also obtained the remaining section of the former Elon Homes for Children campus, which will be consolidated with a previous purchase from the organization.

Elon’s expansion included its first purchase in downtown Burlington. The university bought a building at 217 E. Davis St. and will locate The Village Project, a tutoring program for local children, there.

In terms of national rankings in comparison to other universities, Elon’s School of Business made the list of Top 50 programs, according to Bloomberg. At the end of the year, Elon made Kiplinger’s list of Best College Values. It checked in at No. 22 among 100 private institutions and surpassed Wake Forest in this category.

New legislators elected

Two of the three people who represented Alamance County in the N.C. General Assembly, Reps. Alice Bordsen and Dan Ingle, decided against running for re-election in 2012.

Bordsen, a Democrat, had represented N.C. House District 63 since her first election in 2002. Ingle, a Republican, was appointed in 2009 to represent N.C. House District 64 and was elected to a full term in 2010. Both districts are made up of parts of Alamance County.

Republican Steve Ross, a Burlington City Council member, won the race to replace Bordsen, defeating Democrat Patty Philipps, a Mebane City Council member. Whether Philipps’ October charge of driving while impaired affected the race much is probably mostly speculative, though it would be hard to guess it helped.

Republican Dennis Riddell, a former local GOP chairman, won the race to replace Ingle against Democrat Morris McAdoo.

Both House Districts 63 and 64 were re-drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature following the 2010 census. District 64 was previously a virtual lock for Republican candidates, providing room to make the once strongly Democratic-leaving District 63 competitive without likely jeopardizing Republican control of District 64 in most years.

Republican Sen. Rick Gunn didn’t get a Democratic challenger after his district was re-drawn to be more GOP-friendly. He defeated Libertarian candidate Brandon Black.

Play time!

After years of planning, fundraising and anticipation, the Children’s Museum of Alamance County opened its doors Oct. 6. More than 1,100 attended a three-hour grand opening that day. By year’s end, more than 12,000 people visited the museum, intended to be a regional draw for young families and schools.

The vibrant $4 million, 14,000-square-foot museum at 217 S. Main St. in downtown Graham features hands-on exhibits about art, science, history, nature and literacy and is aimed at children between 2 and 10 years old.

Initially only open on weekends, the museum extended hours to six days a week in mid-November.

Community donations made up the bulk of money that went into building the museum. Since the project was announced in 2007, thousands of residents, businesses and organizations donated to the project, overseen initially by the Hayden-Harman Foundation, which also donated $1 million to its construction.

Hospital takes next step

The year 2012 was one of immense change for Alamance Regional Medical Center.

In December 2011, the hospital’s management announced a merger deal with Cone Health Systems of Greensboro. The merger, making ARMC part of Cone Health Systems, was expected to be completed by mid-summer but was delayed by a Federal Trade Commission review of the merger. The FTC was investigating the impact the merger might have on regional competition and requested more information from the hospitals in September.

In the meantime, ARMC administrators announced plans for a major expansion of its emergency department and operating services and the construction of a new cancer center. The $62.5 million project required a rezoning and was approved by the Burlington City Council in December.

Social Security shut-down

The Social Security Administration office on South Church Street in Burlington closed on March 30, 2012.

The Burlington office received more than 500 visits a week. Several factors led to the decision to close the Burlington location including a significant budget shortfall and the availability of other convenient options, according to SSA spokeswoman Patti Patterson.

The 14 employees who worked at the Burlington site were relocated to surrounding offices. There had been a Social Security Administration office in Burlington since July 1967.

Fatal wreck at license check leads to conviction

A Gibsonville woman pleaded guilty to killing a 21-year-old at an Elon traffic stop when her car struck the woman, who was outside her vehicle arranging a ride home.

Lisa Dianne Sutton, 42, of Ingle Street, Gibsonville, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor death by motor vehicle in the July 2011 death of Shakeshia Taylor. Taylor was involved in a license checkpoint stop on N.C. 100 when Sutton’s 1998 Jeep Cherokee hit her and an Elon officer at the scene.

At the March 7 hearing, Taylor’s family and an assistant Alamance County district attorney requested the maximum 60-day sentence. Sutton, whose own son had been killed by a driver later convicted of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, tearfully apologized to the family.

District Court Judge Catherine Stevens issued a suspended 60-day sentence, placed Sutton on 18 months’ supervised probation and ordered her to spend 20 days in jail. Sutton was also ordered to pay restitution to Taylor’s family.

Man pleads in deadly drunken driving incident

A Haw River man pleaded guilty in March to driving drunk, causing a horrific crash July 24, 2011, that killed a recent Southern Alamance graduate and paralyzed another man.

Curtis Lynn Lutterloh, 29, of Paisley Drive, Haw River, was sentenced to up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to felony death by motor vehicle and felony serious injury by motor vehicle.

Early in the morning of July 24, 2011, the Ford Taurus he was driving at 65 mph crashed into a van being pushed off an interstate exit ramp by Darren Michael Jones, 17, and Carl Benjamin Wheeler, 38. Jones’ brother was steering the van at the time. Jones was killed. Wheeler was paralyzed.

Lutterloh initially denied driving the Taurus, but blood tests in the driver seat matched his and his blood-alcohol level was found to be .19

After the March 7 hearing, Jones’ grandmother pleaded with drivers to use compassion and common sense to avoid future tragedies: “Get a designated driver. There’s no excuse for it,” Melba Jones said.

A place for heroes

The foundation for the Alamance County Fallen Heroes Memorial was laid in April.

The memorial will honor the emergency personnel from Alamance County who have died in the line of duty since 1934, including nine police officers, four firefighters and two emergency personnel. Firefighters from the Burlington Fire Department poured concrete at the memorial’s site off Maple Street in early April.

The memorial will be located near the new Children’s Museum in Graham. Lights will illuminate the memorial which will be lined with trees and shrubs and include benches. It will take $160,000 to complete the memorial. The memorial is expected to be completed by March with a dedication likely in April.

Withdrawn protective order proves tragic

A Burlington man, 25-year-old Tyson Lavar Jones, was charged with shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend on April 2 just minutes after an Alamance County deputy checked on the couple.

Ana Henriquez was shot and killed in the front yard of 824 E. Hughes Mill Road in Caswell County just before 3 p.m. that day.

Jones and Henriquez had a history of domestic violence. On March 8, Henriquez obtained a domestic violence protective order against Jones after he allegedly threatened her at least two times. According to the order, Jones reminded Henriquez several times that he had a gun. On March 26, Henriquez voluntarily dismissed the protective order, writing that she didn’t fear for her life anymore.

Seven minutes before the 911 call reporting the shooting came in, an Alamance County sheriff’s deputy had checked on Jones and Henriquez because Jones had parked on the side of Willie Pace Road. He told the deputy he was looking for a place to fish.

If Henriquez hadn’t withdrawn the protective order, Jones would have been arrested for being with her.

Jones was charged with first-degree murder and is awaiting trial in Alamance County jail.

Incident at hospital leads to changes

A rape that allegedly occurred between two patients at Alamance Regional Medical Center forced the hospital to increase security and led to state inspections.

ARMC administrators and Burlington police called the incident “isolated” and said it occurred between two patients in the same unit.

In the aftermath of the report, ARMC administrators upped security and increased staff training to improve patient safety. ARMC also faced a series of inspections by the state and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The hospital was told to improve five areas of patient safety and care under threat of losing Medicare and Medicaid funding.

In a follow-up inspection mid-March, the hospital had met compliance in all areas.

Cronin’s charges are still pending, and he has yet to be indicted by the grand jury. He is scheduled to appear in Alamance County District Court on Jan. 11.

First of three defendants convicted in Dixon murder

One of three defendants charged with the 2007 murder of retired banker Sara Dixon pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Thomas Clay Friday, 39, took the stand May 3 and described his part in the killing, saying Dixon’s stepson, Robert Dennis Dixon, 47, hired him. Friday hired 23-year-old Matthew Devon Fields to help him carry out the murder. Fields fired the gun that killed Dixon in her sleep the night of Nov. 28, 2007, Friday testified.

Before his testimony, Friday’s defense attempted to have incriminating statements the defendant made to Alamance County detectives and Sheriff Terry Johnson in July 2009 interviews suppressed as unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith ruled the statements could be introduced into the trial. Friday was facing the death penalty and entered into the plea agreement.

The state is still seeking the death penalty against Robert Dennis Dixon and Fields. Robert Dixon allegedly wanted his stepmother killed because she intended to sell the family’s land to pay for care for his father, Friday and Alamance County Assistant District Attorney Sean Boone said. Robert Dixon wanted his stepmother to save money and care for the man herself.

Alamance County District Attorney Pat Nadolski expects the capital case to go to trial in 2013.